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HIS BOOK 


By Rev. ALFRED C. WRIGHT 
ances: 
Of Guadalajara, Mexico 


(Reprinted from Missionary Herald) 


EARS ago when Bibles were scarce 
in this land there lived a little 
boy in one of the northern states 

of the republic whose father gave him 
a book when he had learned to read, 
saying he had found it among his 
books and that it seemed to him in- 
teresting and to contain good moral 
teaching. To be sure of it they took 
the book to the village priest, who, 
for a wonder, declared it to be a good 
book; indeed, he said it was the best 
in the world. 

So the boy began to read; the more 
he read the more interested and de- 
lighted he became, and he learned 
many parts of the book by heart. He 
continued reading and learning for 
. several years, until after the death of 
his father. So he came to love the 
book, supposing there was not another 
one like it in all the world. When he 
was twelve or fourteen years of age 


it occurred to him one day to take his 
book with him to school that he might 
show it to his teacher. What was his 
surprise and consternation when the 
master, throwing up his hands, cried : — 

** Ave Maria, boy, where did you get 
that book? Don’t you know it is one 
of those accursed Protestant books? 
Give it to me this instant!”’ 

Whereupon he seized the volume and 
bore it off. The boy cried and begged 
the teacher to give him back his book, 
but no, he was told that if he wanted 
it he must go to the priest, to whom 
the teacher would take it. 

The boy went home inconsolable and 
wept most of the night. The next day 
he went to the priest, a newcomer 
aware of the insidious Protestant teach- 
ings of the Bible, who told him that 
his book had been burned and that he 
must never read such books lest he be 
excommunicated by the church. 

From that day the boy lost interest 
in everything. For years he led a 
careless and even dissolute life, wan- 
dering from place to place. At length, 
while working for a candy maker in 
El Paso, Texas, the man invited him 
one evening to go with him to some 
sort of a gathering; the poor fellow 
did not know nor much care what it 
was. As he listlessly entered the room 
he saw a man standing on a sort of 
platform with a large book before him 


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from which he was reading, and he 
heard some words which he remem- 
bered. Instantly breaking from his 
companion, who tried to restrain him, 
the young man rushed forward in front 
of the whole congregation, and stopping 
in front of the reader, said : — 

‘‘Sir, have the kindness to give me 
back my book. That is my book that 
you are reading from. They took it 
away from me years ago, but it is 
mine.’’ 

And he stretched out his hand toward 
the preacher to receive his treasure, 
for he had not the slightest idea there 
could be more than one such book. 
The preacher, astonished, asked him 
why he called the book his. 

““T can prove to you it is mine,”’ said 
he. “I will tell you what it says.” 
And he began to repeat passages that 
he had learned years before. 

The result was that they gave him 
“his book,’’ and it changed his life. 
He is now an honored doctor, living in 
the city of Mexico not far from the 
place where this is written, a member 
of an evangelical church, and still be- 
lieving that there is not in the world 
a book so good as his book. 

The story was related to me by a 
young man who was converted recently 
in a meeting held near this place; the 
doctor had told it to him some time 
ago. 


REV. ALFRED C. WRIGHT is a mis- 
sionary of the American Board in its 
Mexican Mission. The missionary force 
of the Board in Mexico numbers fifteen, 
occupying six stations, in the cities of 
Guadalajara, Chihuahua, Hermosillo, Par- 
ral, El Fuerte, and C. Guerrero. Con- 
nected with these stations are fifty-nine 
outstations. The population of Mexicd is 
over 13,605,000, only nineteen per cent 
being of the white race. Twelve years 
ago more than 10,000,000 of the population 
could neither read nor write. The value 
of the schools which the Board maintains 
in this land, from the kindergarten to the 
college, can be judged from the above 
figures, and is emphasized by the stury 
told in this leaflet. Similar stories of in- 
teresting life histories from this and the 
other nineteen missions of the Board are 
continually appearing in the Missionary 
Herald. 


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PIS 


For copies of other leaflets published by the Amer- 
ican Board, or for subscriptions to the Missionary 
Herald, write to John G. Hosmer, 14 Beacon Street, 
Boston, Mass. The subscription price of the Herald 
is 75 cents a year; in church clubs of ten or more 
members, 50 cents a year. 


Contributions should be sent to Frank H. Wiggin, 
Treasurer, 14 Beacon Street, Boston, Mass., or to 
the District Secretaries, as follows: Rev. Charles C. 
Creegan, D.D., Fourth Avenue and 22d Street, New 
York; Rev. A. N. Hitchcock, Ph.D., 153 La Salle 
Street, Chicago, Ill.; Rev. H. Melville Tenney, Bar- 
ker Block, Berkeley, Cal. 


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Thomas Todd Boston 


